My dad and step-mom and I went to dinner at their favorite sushi place tonight. As we were sitting there snarfing down edamame and sipping tea from handleless earthenware mugs, we talked about blogging and its impact on traditional media and on political discourse as a whole. I was telling them about the kind of continual dull roar of anti-blogger rhetoric that we hear a lot from your more entrenched trad-media types about how Bloggers are Uncivil, Bloggers are Uninformed, Bloggers Have No Qualifications, They're Ugly, and They Smell Funny, Too. You know the drill.

People act like it's this sudden and inexplicable development that writers on opposite sides of the political line should be furiously self-publishing, hurling all manner of invective at each other in a no-holds-barred frenzy of ideological combat. I, on the other hand, feel that bloggers are merely taking up the same cudgels as all the great satirists and political writers in history, that political writing has always been fiercely ideological, often rude, and sometimes hilarious.

For instance, have a look at this description of the good people of "Eatanswill", the politically divided town from Chapter 13 of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens:

It appears, then, that the Eatanswill people, like the people of many other small towns, considered themselves of the utmost and most mighty importance, and that every man in Eatanswill, conscious of the weight that attached to his example, felt himself bound to unite, heart and soul, with one of the two great parties that divided the town–the Blues and the Buffs. Now the Blues lost no opportunity of opposing the Buffs, and the Buffs lost no opportunity of opposing the Blues; and the consequence was, that whenever the Buffs and Blues met together at public meeting, town-hall, fair, or market, disputes and high words arose between them.

(snip)

Of course it was essentially and indispensably necessary that each of these powerful parties should have its chosen organ and representative: and, accordingly, there were two newspapers in the town–the Eatanswill GAZETTE and the Eatanswill INDEPENDENT; the former advocating Blue principles, and the latter conducted on grounds decidedly Buff. Fine newspapers they were. Such leading articles, and such spirited attacks!–'Our worthless contemporary, the GAZETTE'–'That disgraceful and dastardly journal, the INDEPENDENT'–'That false and scurrilous print, the INDEPENDENT'– 'That vile and slanderous calumniator, the GAZETTE;' these, and other spirit-stirring denunciations, were strewn plentifully over the columns of each, in every number, and excited feelings of the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of the townspeople.

And here we are, nearly a hundred and fifty years later, except instead of the Gutenberg press, now we have MacBooks.

So, bloggers, hold your heads high! You are the rightful descendents of Swift, Pope, Dryden, and Boswell! You are the children of Trollope, Dickens, and Twain! It's our job to excite feelings of the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of our fellows, huzzah!

Frankly, I think that in times of great political strife and unrest, people like ourselves are called by duty to wade in and articulate that which other like-minded souls are struggling to put into words. We comfort the distressed and distress the comfortable.

And I, for one, couldn't be happier. It's kind of marvellous to me that in our age of technological wonders and miracles that the written word is still one of the most powerful and provocative instruments of change. It seems that we've been hearing for years that the Internet would mean the death of reading and writing. We'll all end up talking in emoticons and video clips, right?

Well, no, obviously not. Reading and writing are alive and well. Long live the blogs!

OT — The Guardian reports (in the grand tradition of the above-mentioned Brits) today on what our friends at the AEI have been up to:

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

If I correctly understand your basic point to be “Blogging is nothing new, it’s something very old operating under a different name in a different medium,” then I can only agree. Besides, if blogging is such a Hideous Newfangled Travesty of the Ancient and Honourable Craft of Journalism, then I fail to understand the apparent compulsion of mainstream media websites to have their employees write commentaries to post as “blogs.” I don’t really regard those as blogs, mainly because what I think makes a blog a blog is that it is about sharing perspectives in a medium free of the big-money politics that drives so many editorial and publishing decisions in the mainstream media. That’s not a lack of qualification; lots of people without a degree from a journalism school possess comparable research and writing skills, if not better. It is a lack of corporate constraint, which in my opinion is no bad thing.

I really don’t know what the schedule is going to be like this weekend. I’m angling to get myself invited to dinner at Pach’s house tomorrow night. Then I’m going to try to find something fun to do while the rest of my family watches the Stupor Bowl.

After reading tributes to Molly Ivins by Bill Moyers and Paul Krugman [available via links from commondreams.org], I’d suggest that the MSM Old-Trad’s main reasons for vilifying and getting the vapors over bloggers are plain ol’ jealousy…and cowardice.

I really don’t know what the schedule is going to be like this weekend. I’m angling to get myself invited to dinner at Pach’s house tomorrow night. Then I’m going to try to find something fun to do while the rest of my family watches the Stupor Bowl.

I recall the National Gallery East Wing to be particularly cruiseworthy during the Stupor Bowl. Many footballing Sundays spent there productively. I highly recommend it.

You are correct, dear theropod — commentary on humankind’s political follies has always been divided between those who support the status quo and are paid for their precious words, and the pamphleteers whose words are free but defend freedom. Very glad to have you on our side — and delighted that Broderella is on theirs!

One month ago tonight some entry level lawyer een the firm Representing ABC/Disney leaned back, fired up a Cohiba, and chuckled at the pobrecito “5th tier blogger” that he had just silenced so effectively.
He had no idea what was coming hees way, poor bastard.

A web log was originally little more than a journal entry; it did not have the two-way dialogue that blogs offer today. It was more of a digital diary of sorts. And Pepys was a diarist extraordinaire.

Blogs depart from the diary/journal, though, because they do allow for a dialogue. FireDogLake, for example, is not merely the posts alone; it is the sum of its posts and comments combined. We can also see blogs emerging from a dialogue to a forum or movement; FireDogLake has already reached out and touched people as an entity in many ways, from SPOTLIGHT to copies of Crashing the Gate to Congresspersons, to live bloggers in a federal courthouse.

In some respects what we do as bloggers and commenters is not a diary with dialogue or even community. The posters are pamphleteers, like Tom Paine and his Common Sense. We are advocates who seek to shape opinion and action through our words.

It is this diversity of capabilities and their fluidity that newspapers find threatening. I’d mentioned previously that I no longer have any use for my local newspaper, its contents already aged a day or two by the time it arrives at my door; the newspaper is merely a newsprint wrapper for advertisements. Why am I paying someone for their advertisements, when the wrapper doesn’t even have much utility to me?

One month ago tonight some entry level lawyer een the firm Representing ABC/Disney leaned back, fired up a Cohiba, and chuckled at the pobrecito “5th tier blogger” that he had just silenced so effectively.
He had no idea what was coming hees way, poor bastard.

…blogging isn’t a new concept. Humans have been chronicling for as long as there has been media to support our need to create, to capture expression. The first guy journaling his hunt on the cave walls must have been gratified by the act and surely got a lot of attention from his cavemates; others within the cave community must have rushed to copy this effort once they found their own personal value in this effort. Some efforts were singular, some collaborative – but all gained a larger life through observation and participation.

The diary/ journal/ chronicle adds value at least twice — as observers, we appreciate the content and the context both, while the diarist enjoys the catharsis of creation. Blogging can add a third dimension, allowing for the enlistment of the observer into the process. The concept of enlisting the observer isn’t entirely new; remember what happened after leaving your diary out when you were a teenager? once your sister gets to it, it’s definitely a new thing, not what it was before!

We’re enlisted, those of us who read and take the next step beyond. Newspapers whine and pule about bloggers and their participants out of jealous pique, because newspapers still struggle a handful of years later with enlisting and really engaging its readers.

OT — The Guardian reports (in the grand tradition of the above-mentioned Brits) today on what our friends at the AEI have been up to:

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

AAAARRRRGHHHHH!!! Where’s the fucking outrage? Or is this another one of those “facts of life” that we DFH’s just need to get over?

I enjoy the hell out reading what you guys have to say, we are far far away from the wimps and pussies we are portrayed as maybe our nom de guerre eh hosers. If it suits their fancy to so name us then look upon it as also their weakness and our strength, they fail in their estimation of us and one should never underestimate an adversary.

In June I went to England for a family funeral. We stayed in a village outside of Cambridge where my cousin lives. We got put up by her friend who lived in a place called Pepys Cottage. It was originally built by his cousin Catherine and became the home of the village teacher and the school.
Apparently Pepys himself stayed there.

The walls dated back in places to Tudor times and there were some old old dates and grafitti carved into the wood.

Later in London we did some historic research at the library in Southwark. It is next to the wall that is all that remains of the Marshasea prison where Dickens father was imprisoned as a debtor, and which ultimately inspired some of Dickens’ work.

In June I went to England for a family funeral. We stayed in a village outside of Cambridge where my cousin lives. We got put up by her friend who lived in a place called Pepys Cottage. It was originally built by his cousin Catherine and became the home of the village teacher and the school.
Apparently Pepys himself stayed there.

The walls dated back in places to Tudor times and there were some old old dates and grafitti carved into the wood.

Later in London we did some historic research at the library in Southwark. It is next to the wall that is all that remains of the Marshasea prison where Dickens father was imprisoned as a debtor, and which ultimately inspired some of Dickens’ work.

I’m going to try to find something fun to do while the rest of my family watches the Stupor Bowl.

I second the museum recommendation. No admission fees! Our taxes pay for the free access to art in DC. That always makes me feel very patriotic.

Are you staying right in DC itself? If the weather permits, you could always go visit Mr. Lincoln. My partner and I did that in April. There were a zillion teenagers on school trips, so we had to pretend we weren’t getting all teary-eyed while reading his words.

There are postcards of Marian Anderson singing in front of Mr. Lincoln, after the D.A.R. refused to let her sing in their concert hall.

And right out front, at the top of the steps, are golden letters embedded in the marble, comemmorating Rev. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Oh, my. Much surreptitious Kleenex deployment to avoid making all the teenagers’ eyes roll back in their heads.

BTW, TRex, have you ever bought ink from Fahrney’s Pens? I see they have several shades of blue, but I’ve never bought from them, wondered if you had. Will check in the a.m. for feedback.

I haven’t. And I need some new ink. Hmmmm…

Recommend you leave your credit cards at your dad’s when you make the trip to Fahrney’s. It’s delicious. My pen-addict DeeCee friend would only visit at the end of the pay-period, when her rent and bills were paid.

Recommend you leave your credit cards at your dad’s when you make the trip to Fahrney’s. It’s delicious. My pen-addict DeeCee friend would only visit at the end of the pay-period, when her rent and bills were paid.

Hi TeddySF,
Was wondering what the temperature was out there regarding Newsom’s admission yesterday?
I heard his approvals are in the 70s, so I assume this is something that won’t hurt his ambitions too much.

One of these days I shall have to organize my pictures and direct you towards them. We had perfect weather and in London a hotel room that overlooked Russell Square about a block or two from the British Museum.

Oh and lionheart? It was during the world cup and everyone had flags flying on their cars and houses. Here in Toronto they did too, but from every country that was playing. (You can imagine how Toronto, the fifth largest “Italian city” in the world reacted when they won.)In England it as virtually all the cross of St. George — a red cross on a white ground.

The first time I saw it hanging out of a house window, in a vertical rather than a typical horizontal fashion, my first thought was –Crusaders?

Hi TeddySF,
Was wondering what the temperature was out there regarding Newsom’s admission yesterday?
I heard his approvals are in the 70s, so I assume this is something that won’t hurt his ambitions too much.

These “approvals” are based on old polls no media outlet will cite. I’ve heard this “in-the-seventies” chatter too. Yesterday, CBS5 had a poll showing 58% said it wouldn’t affect their opinion of Gavin. However: the reporter-on-the-street interviews on the local news have revealed that The Mayor violated a Man-Law: Don’t boink your buddy’s wife.

DiFi has an approving quote — she adores him. Reports indicate Pelosi called from Williamsburg with support (Gavin’s her nephew by marriage).

Alex Tourk got Gavin elected, built his world-famous Homeless Connect program, and was his deputy chief of staff before leaving City Hall to manage his re-election campaign. The affair happened 18 months ago — while Alex and Ruby were both subordinates of Gavin’s on the City payroll.

A few years ago, in the time when the net was catching on and blogging hadn’t, I read something about historians bemoaning the fact that no one kept journals anymore. So much of history’s detail was being lost. Whoever wrote that particular piece must be dancing for joy. Think about it, blogs run the gamut of human existence. People blog about everything under the sun and if preserved, blogs will provide the garnish for history’s dry fare. That said, the problem of these details disappearing still remains. From Billmons ruminations on what from his archives were worth preserving to all the little personal blogs that were started and abandoned, there is still a chance that the little nugget that provides the key to understanding will be lost.

I’m still waiting to hear that disciplinary proceedings have been filed against him in whatever jurisdiction he is admitted to the bar.

If I am not mistaken the good folks in California did bring bar charges against him. But now that he has resigned in disgrace who knows if there is still a need…Perhaps to disbar him would be still be necessary.

I’m still waiting to hear that disciplinary proceedings have been filed against him in whatever jurisdiction he is admitted to the bar.

If I am not mistaken the good folks in California did bring bar charges against him. But now that he has resigned in disgrace who knows if there is still a need…Perhaps to disbar him would be still be necessary.

-GSD

One of the fundamental precepts of “legal ethics” or professional responsibility is that all attorneys have an obligation to ensure that people in need of legal representation receive it.

Cully’s apparent efforts to intimidate law firms into ceasing representation of Guantanamo detainees flies directly in the face of this duty.

Resignation does not fix it. Disciplinary action is needed to see that he–or others, by example–do not behave in this fashion in the future.

Blogs depart from the diary/journal, though, because they do allow for a dialogue. FireDogLake, for example, is not merely the posts alone; it is the sum of its posts and comments combined. We can also see blogs emerging from a dialogue to a forum or movement; FireDogLake has already reached out and touched people as an entity in many ways, from SPOTLIGHT to copies of Crashing the Gate to Congresspersons, to live bloggers in a federal courthouse.

In some respects what we do as bloggers and commenters is not a diary with dialogue or even community. The posters are pamphleteers, like Tom Paine and his Common Sense. We are advocates who seek to shape opinion and action through our words.

Great essay, TRex. But some of the comments scared the dickens out of my peeps got me to think. I was describing pre-Gutenberg communication to some classes this past week, scribes in teams on long benches, copying duplicates of the same message on parchment, to be delivered on horseback, or on foot, throughout medieval Europe. I compared that to the image of the bloggers’ room outside the Libby trial.

BTW, TRex, have you ever bought ink from Fahrney’s Pens? I see they have several shades of blue, but I’ve never bought from them, wondered if you had. Will check in the a.m. for feedback.

I couldn’t begin to guess how much money I’ve spent with Fahrney’s over the years, both in person and online. That said, it’s not the best place on earth to buy ink; they don’t carry a very wide variety.

I see TRex won’t be live blogging from the Superbowl. Could there be some trend here that bloggers don’t need the adrenaline rush of football warfare?

OMG, you’re not saying that we, like, have, y’know, lives?

OK, unfair. I know some FDLers are fans, but I think we can put it into perspective. It’s a game. We realize the truly important things are not being televised for the masses, but are small gems of infomation gleaned by astute individuals and shared with the rest of us. We have in our midst a thousand Paul Reveres, spreading the message throughout the land. The more Powerful Interests, be they governmental or corporate, try to control the message, the more people will turn to blogs for the truth.

The traffic during the Libby trial on this website alone is proof. We are no longer satisfied with what Big Media wants us to know; we want to know for ourselves what is going on. I can’t but help but wonder whether cameras in Federal courtrooms are in the not too distant future.

If you really insist on dropping big coin on pens in the DC area, go out and see my friend Bert Heiserman some Saturday at his store, Pen Haven, in Kensington, MD. Bert specializes in vintage pens, and he usually has tons of stuff that’s to die for.

Trex, you’re so right. Bloggers are the new pamphleteers. But I wonder, did the Loyalists get paid by the King to produce pro-monarchy pieces? Who was the Armstrong Williams of the 18th century? Or 19th for that matter.

After reading tributes to Molly Ivins by Bill Moyers and Paul Krugman [available via links from commondreams.org], I’d suggest that the MSM Old-Trad’s main reasons for vilifying and getting the vapors over bloggers are plain ol’ jealousy…and cowardice.

Democracy Now has recently run features about destruction of video imaging equipment and still cameras at several confrontations. In the USA. Bloggers haven’t been specific targets per se, word, audio or video. But it is coming.

A State Department already involved in demonizing international communication between environmental, anti-war, humanitarian and other organizations can’t be far from attempting to roll up a very activist blog site/network. Here, not Egypt.

Plus 45F here. It was 58F yesterday afternoon and 54 today. Three weeks ago it was minus 36F. We’ve never seen a first week of February this warm. Nordic skiers are having major fits. A week ago they were thinking of cancelling the Iditarod sled dog race for too much snow. Now I’m sure they’re worried about bare ground.

I recently read Newt Gingrich’s American Civil War trilogy. It starts out with the south winning the Battle of Gettysburg, but losing the war by the beginning of fall 1863, after Grant takes over the savaged Army of the Potomac.

As far as your point goes, Newt’s character sketches read like he’s gone to central casting for help on how to show his focus groups for 2008 various caricatures from the Civil War era, and find out how they might register on the minds of his imaginary future targeted voters.

Mostly, the books sucked, though we might thank Newt for ending the war 19 months earlier than it really did.

WTF! Only two Dems showed up for Feingold’s Hearing on Ending the War on Iraq?

The Wall Street Journal
February 2, 2007

Senator Feingold’s Sin

Mr. Feingold’s reward for honesty was to preside over what might have been the least-attended hearing so far in the Iraq debate. And those of his Senate colleagues who did bother to show up looked like they couldn’t wait to hit an exit door. “If Congress doesn’t stop this war, it’s not because it doesn’t have the power. It’s because it doesn’t have the will,” declared Mr. Feingold. Ted Kennedy — one of two Democrats who put in an appearance — could be seen shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

WTF! Only two Dems showed up for Feingold’s Hearing on Ending the War on Iraq?

The Wall Street Journal
February 2, 2007

Senator Feingold’s Sin

Mr. Feingold’s reward for honesty was to preside over what might have been the least-attended hearing so far in the Iraq debate. And those of his Senate colleagues who did bother to show up looked like they couldn’t wait to hit an exit door. “If Congress doesn’t stop this war, it’s not because it doesn’t have the power. It’s because it doesn’t have the will,” declared Mr. Feingold. Ted Kennedy — one of two Democrats who put in an appearance — could be seen shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

WTF! Only two Dems showed up for Feingold’s Hearing on Ending the War on Iraq?

The Wall Street Journal
February 2, 2007

Senator Feingold’s Sin

Mr. Feingold’s reward for honesty was to preside over what might have been the least-attended hearing so far in the Iraq debate. And those of his Senate colleagues who did bother to show up looked like they couldn’t wait to hit an exit door. “If Congress doesn’t stop this war, it’s not because it doesn’t have the power. It’s because it doesn’t have the will,” declared Mr. Feingold. Ted Kennedy — one of two Democrats who put in an appearance — could be seen shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

Clear and cold in the central Jersey this morning. We have arctic temperatures on the way. The moon shadows are fading, and rosy-fingered dawn is on the southeastern horizon [thanks, Virgil].

Some advice for TRex on a good museum to visit in DC: the National Building Museum, located at Judiciary Square on the Metro red line. It’s housed in the Pension Building, built in the 1880s, to house the Pension Bureau, precursor to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The building was design by Montgomery Meigs, who had served as Quartermaster General in the Civil War [and lost a son in that war]. Meigs was an engineer by training [at West Point], and based the exterior of the Pension Building on the Palazzo Farnese in Rome–but built in on a budget, using bricks, like the Government Printing Office. Beautiful terra cotta frieze of different military units wraps around the entire building, based in part on the frieze from the Parthenon that depicts Panathenaic procession. But nothing about the exterior of the Pension Building prepares you for the Great Hall: an enormous atrium, the size of a football field, rising eight stories high, divided by colossal Corinthian columns.

These last weeks I have felt that we ,as a nation,are on the edge,looking down to chaos below.Right on the edge of a phase-change in out existance.And I dont know where we will be when it happens
1. In some hellish martial law nightmare,no net,no news,just police,paranoia,and poverty

We cannot stay on the path we are traveling.It leads to the graveyard of civilizations,and of all we hold dear.With a 6 yearold grandson,and a 2yearold granddaughter I now look beyond any pain or terror that my tough old bones would face…my fear is for the children of our land

I read a very thought-provoking essay by Chalmers Johnson this past week over at TPM Cafe. He has a new book out, Nemesis, that explains the essential conflict of being a democracy at home and an empire abroad. Here’s the link.

So, bloggers, hold your heads high! You are the rightful descendents of Swift, Pope, Dryden, and Boswell! You are the children of Trollope, Dickens, and Twain! It’s our job to excite feelings of the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of our fellows, huzzah!

Yes indeed,

And the whiners of the trad-media, the inside the beltway infotainment industrial complex, the failed believers in faulty conventional would-be/could-be wisdom are true descendents of Eatanswill as well.

If you are looking for an alternative to the StuporBowl on Sunday, tune in to Animal Planet for the annual PUPPY BOWL. As far as I could determine last year there are two rules. Pissing on the field is “Illegal Proceedure” and if you corner the ball for purposes of a really good chew, that gets a flag on the play. Otherwise, it is far better and the major thing on deck; for advertisements you get Iams or raw-hide chews in various flavors. Moreover players get to take time out for a little snooze right on the field when ever they feel like it, and when they feel inspired, jump back into the game. The Concept of team play seemed to be totally absent, but signals are constantly being called, as all players are trying to recruit teammates.

Strong recommendation for dog lovers, Firedogpups, and passionate football haters. And if you have a “best friend” such as my Elwell, make up a tray of goodies and sit real close to the screen during play so as to enjoy it together.

Pepys!! Dryden!! Trollope!! The legacy of a college English major. Seldom do I EVER hear anyone refer to Trollope [Anthony, not Joanna], my most favorite writer of all time.

A couple of additional DC suggestions, Trex [check museums for how late they’re open Sunday; most close around 5 pm, an hour before the Super Bowl starts]: The Phillips Collection, near DuPont Circle. Lodged in a house [aka “mansion”], it holds gems like Renoir’s “Boating Party on the Seine” and others. The Impressionist collection is large enough to be interesting but small enough not to be overwhelming. And the setting is relaxing.

The Sackler Galelry: on the Mall, most of the Gallery is underground. Asian art, very interesting and soothing.

If, like me, you are one of the few people on the planet who’s read ALL six novels of John Galsworthy’s Forsythe Saga, go to the cemetary on North Capital Street, just above Washington Hospital Center, to see the large statute he so movingly describes in one of the last books.

If you’re there, travel on up North Capital Street about a mile (past NH Ave and MN Ave) to the small street Oglethorpe on the right. There is housed the Wasington Animal Rescue League [a no-kill shelter], which just completed a renovation which provides animals soothing surroundings [in addition to the fact that they’re not on “death row,” which they probably also find soothing]. You can visit here without guilt, since even if you don’t adopt an animal, it won’t be killed. Go to WARL to see what will hopefully be the trend in animal welfare: no cages, soothing waterfalls, bright homes for the dogs & cats.

Enjoy. DC weather’s not as horrible as it usually is this time of year. And the subway’s fun –if it doesn’t catch fire while you’re riding it.

One more DC site to see – National Museum of the American Indian – slideshow

I was there a few years ago and found it disappointing; I did not think it was that interesting nor providing a good insight into the lives of the American Indians. The smaller provincial museum in Victoria, BC does a better job depicting the lives of indigenous people.

Coffee makes everything crystal-clear, which makes me certain that I am right. What happens to a society in which everyone feels lucid, infallible and empowered? I believe Fox News would be your answer.

Democracy Now has recently run features about destruction of video imaging equipment and still cameras at several confrontations. In the USA. Bloggers haven’t been specific targets per se, word, audio or video. But it is coming.

A State Department already involved in demonizing international communication between environmental, anti-war, humanitarian and other organizations can’t be far from attempting to roll up a very activist blog site/network. Here, not Egypt.

[The SHAC 7] are a group of activists who were never charged with breaking into a fur farm, spray-painting slogans, or breaking windows. The SHAC 7 simply made a point of vocally supporting those who did.

SHAC never tried to be in the “with us” camp. They vigorously defended direct action, even as many national groups condemned underground activists as extremists, and even terrorists, to win cheap political points.